Why Are We Creating AI -services for People Affected by Domestic Violence?

Domestic violence is a persistent problem globally and, due to low reporting, remains a hidden epidemic with tremendous harm to individuals and society.

In addition to the suffering of the victims and people around them, domestic violence affects lost economic output relating to various costs associated with victims' work status and productivity. The cost of gender-based violence only across the EU is €366 billion a year. Violence against women makes up 79%, and intimate partner violence is almost half €174 billion of the cost of gender-based violence. The biggest cost, 56%, comes from the physical and emotional impact. The issue is global. Direct and indirect costs of mental ill-health are estimated at over 4% of global GDP, reaching more than €5,5 trillion annually.

Domestic violence affects lost economic output relating to various costs associated with the work status and productivity of the victims. It’s also loading diverse support functions of both victims and impacted people and organisations around them. However, the consequences are still either ignored or not well understood specifically by private organisations. The resolution of the issue needs a two-fold approach: to communicate the considerable economic potential when reducing violence and demonstrate the impact of digital services providers.

We Encourage (WE) has taken the role with diverse partner organisations to build awareness on the scale of the problem, human suffering and loss of economic resources while building the solution to resolve the issue through digital tools, processes and people.

AinoAid™ services are created to lower the threshold for seeking help

Most of the services to help the victims are focused on acute help, limited with access hours and human resources, which may prevent the victims from getting a longer-term resolution and support for the healing process towards survivors. Lengthening of the resolution causes wider issues to the people around the victims as well as the employers and entire societies. With AinoAid™, the victims get faster and easier access to the information they need to proceed in their search for help and smooth ways out with less damage to all parties involved. The anonymous chat provides first-level support with guidance to the paths forward, and the ecosystem players around AinoAid™ can help the victims and their families to start the resolution and healing process for the parties who should be included.

The entire ecosystem of tools and partners can shorten the time of conducted violence and prevent major economic and emotional suffering of the impacted victims, people, and organisations.

AinoAid™ is designed as a first step for victims seeking help. Anonymous chat helps overcome the shame they feel and learn the level of seriousness of their situation for the most suitable action they can take. Usually, the desired services are hard to find and scattered, and it’s often difficult to recognise the right services. Further, most of the services address the acute situation, missing the need for long-term support in terms of psycho-social help and guidance for the healing process from victim to survivor.

Addressing the growing need and limited capacity for support services, AinoAid™ provides AI, machine learning and NLP -based conversational services to recognise the type of violence and to find the most relevant path to support organisations and services.

The design of AinoAid™ chat and future offering portfolios starts with the people in need and organisations providing the services. Our pilots have demonstrated that the impact can be delivered through the following principles:

Design with and for the user

• The conversation flows are designed based on both the experience of the therapists and victims who have succeeded in finding the resolution and become survivors instead of staying as victims.

Data-driven

• Data plays a crucial role in avoiding bias and assumptions in developing the most accurate resolution paths for the victims.

Value creation with the local ecosystems

• Local expert organisations help understand the needs and wants and how to deliver contextually relevant support to the people in need.
• Local partnerships help run the local experiments (and later local operations and service provision) to generate contextually relevant conversational content that feeds the algorithms and provides long-term services for the healing process.

Value capture for all parties

• The victims get 24/7 access to the service and diverse paths for help depending on the types of violence.
• Local societies and public health organisations can prioritise the interventions based on the severity of the violence without human bias.
• Private service providers find the customers they can add the most value to.
• WE and their partners get the ability to deliver more accurate support services for the desired impact and generate revenues and financial capabilities for constant technology and service development.

We Encourage is a leading partner in the IMPROVE consortium. IMPROVE is a three-year project funded by EU Horizon, in which WE develop AinoAid services. This type of project collaboration is at the core of the value creation by WE. Learn more by visiting IMPROVE website.